Ozzie Road Trip - The prequel

[mouseinthehouse]

We had a pleasant overnight stop at Ti Tree Roadhouse. Note to potential travellers: forget the towns with Big4 caravan parks and clinical camp grounds and stay at the numerous roadhouse campgrounds or the free overnight stops along the highway. You might get showers that are a bit 'rustic' but the water will be hot and plentiful and the people friendly and you will have few others to share with.

Along the highway we had to stop in at Wycliff Hill the supposed UFO capital of Australia.
Well of course I had to buy number 2 son some hideous tokens of our visit because he loves that stuff.
I also was pleased to buy an Aboriginal art work (painting on canvas) done by a local female artist. It was here SO also got some good pics of this particularly large road train.







Along the way we also called in at Devil's Marbles conservation park for a walk around the fascinating granite boulders.





Our morning drive eventually got us to Tennant Creek. Nothing to recommend it. *shudder* We got groceries (an experience I wouldn't want to repeat) and fuel and got out of there as quickly as possible. By now we were in the Barkley Tablelands. A massive expanse of flat shrubby cattle country that covers a huge area of NT and Western Queensland. Just north of Tennant Creek we finally stopped going North and turned right and headed east towards the Qld. border. After just short of 200kms we pulled in to Barkley Homestead for the night. What an excellent place! Lovely big roadhouse selling books, souvenirs of good quality and a large and inviting pub/dining room. We paid for a powered site at the campground which adjoined and it is set out well with beautiful huge trees of subtropical provenance. Highly recommended.

Once set up we got a brandy and dry under our belt only to discover a crisis at hand. ONLY ONE MORE SHOT OF BRANDY EACH left in the bottle!!! These roadhouse places do not sell take away alcohol so we are on the wagon for a couple of days. -O -O

Tomorrow we will get to the QLD/NT border by lunch time and then push on towards Cloncurry. Then Longreach where we will be able to visit the Stockman's Hall of Fame and the Qantas Aviation Museum before the final push to Yeppoon, (Saturday), on the Queensland coast at the start of the Whitsundays. This is where number 1 son lives and with each passing day I am getting more excited about seeing him.

[Sprocky]

Holy cow, that is one long road train!!!

Good luck on the wagon.

[Flutterby]

Hey STF, there's a train for you! -O

Did you see any aliens mith?

[Lisbeth]

Those are some boulders Big country= big road trains, big rocks, big boulders etc.

[mouseinthehouse]

Didn't see any aliens (un) ? fortunately. Maybe we should have stayed there overnight?

That road train is about as big as they get. Most are three trailers long but each trailer is not quite as big as those fuel tanks. You should see them if they get a bit of a wobble. The last trailer can snake from side to side rather alarmingly. That is when you don't want to be too close behind or your windscreen will be hammered by rocks. Now you can appreciate how the roos and cows and camels and such just ping off the front.

[Flutterby]

Scary stuff mith!!

[nan]

oups beyond measure trucks
nice granit boulders

[steamtrainfan]

Thanks for the pic of the road train mith. I had heard they were huge but this one is a monster.

So pleased that you are all still well and travelling safely.

I know that feeling when you cannot wait to see a son - am excited for you.

[mouseinthehouse]

hi Wildies! Had a night off last night. It had dawned on me that I would miss three episodes of Discovery Channel's 'Gold Rush Season 3'. Yeah tragic I know. But I only watch about 3 hrs of TV a week and this is one of the shows I like (that and Deadliest Catch). Then the penny dropped that I might be able to see it courtesy of YouTube on the laptop. yep a couple of hours later and we were up to date. -O

Yesterday we drove a lot. Well it felt like a lot. From Barkley Homestead 260kms west of the NT/QLD border to a free campsite on the road 50kms south east of Cloncurry Qld.


Free Roadside campsite (toilets- not much else)



Now not to be too hard on the Banana Benders, but seriously out here in the never never a lot of people are hillbillies. When you get to a town and you have to stop on the main street and reverse angle park butt to the kerb, you have to wonder. Who ever thought that would be a good idea? Went through Winton. The whole Barkley Highway should be re-named Road Kill Highway. What a waste of native wildlife!! Average (I counted) 20+ carcasses in every 5 km stretch. Roos, wallabies, kites, emus. Plus a lot of feral cats (they have infiltrated every square inch of Australia) plus feral pigs.

Had another couple of firsts. Sighted several Australian Bustards (yeah Bustards, not that other kind, they're everywhere )
Just like a Kori Bustard they were ranging through the open and light scrubby grasslands. Also saw quite a few Brolgas.


This Brolga was a semi-tame one at a roadhouse but we saw a few wild ones too!




Australian Bustard



We also drove right through Longreach home of Qantas. What a money grabber. Read on the internet it costs $21 pp to get in the gate of the Aviation Museum and then you pay extra for lots of stuff. Same with the Stockman's Hall of Fame $29 to get in pp. They're dreamin'.

Up the road a bit we saw stockmen for real. Two drovers on horses were tending a very large herd of cattle on the Long Paddock. Keeping them on the wide verge between the railway line and the highway. A lot of central and north west Queensland is in drought so this is one solution.



Eventually we got to this tiny hamlet called Jericho. It is 500kms west of Rockhampton. We are at the town showgrounds. Fantastic place in the bush. tiny bush toilet and shower but powered sites. Only a couple of other people here and it is quiet as quiet. $15 per site per night.


The campground view.


Butcher bird resident at campsite.

Tomorrow morning we will try to get an early start for the run to Rocky. Gotta go can hear cows outside the van grazing in the dark.

[Bushcraft]

Fascinating again , long trucks, free roadside camping spots , faulty looking birds

Great stuff